‘No chance of Russia being able to back down on Ukraine’

Pro-Russian protesters wave a Russian flag and hold a sign (C) reading "Our brothers are in Russia, we are slaves in Europe" during a rally in front of the regional administration building in the industrial Ukrainian city of Donetsk on March 1, 2014. (AFP Photo / Alexander Khudoteply) / AFP

The West organized the coup in Ukraine and they can make this very ugly, but there is no chance of Russia being able to back down, Danny Welch, blogger and anti-war activist, told RT.

Russia’s dispatch of a stabilization force in Crimea on official
request from local authorities was harshly criticized by US Secretary of State John
Kerry over weekend, threatening to isolate Russia economically
and politically and warning of potential asset freezes and visa
bans.

“You just don’t invade another country on phony pretext in
order to assert your interests,” John Kerry said during an
interview with NBC’s Meet the Press. “This is an act of
aggression that is completely trumped up in terms of its pretext.
It’s really 19th-century behavior in the 21st century.”

Welch says, the Kerry’s statement has an obvious weak point.

RT:John Kerry's criticism appeared very
harsh. But will Washington follow through with concrete
action?

Danny Welch: The harshness of his [Kerry’s]
reaction is indicative of the weakness of his position. In the
first place it is absolutely surreal for the Secretary of State
of the US to state that a country doesn't have a right to invade
other countries without a pretext, when right at the moment his
own government is involved in up to a dozen countries. And I
think the whole world thinks it sounds crazy except for the
Western press.

RT:Western countries back Kiev ... are we
seeing a self-appointed government receiving international
recognition?

DW: I'm not sure that’s international
recognition. The Western powers always use a term international
community when they mean themselves and a few of their closest
friends. I think what remains to be seen is Russia and China -
they are the two strongest members of the UN Security Council.
They'll obviously withhold recognition. Turkey basically agrees
with Russia on the Crimean issue.

The coup is unraveling. The Navy commander defected and swore his
leniency to Crimea. It's not a tenable position for anyone
involved, I think [the West] will try and they have military
muscle, if they really want to start a war they can. [The West]
started the coup, they funded the coup, they organized the coup -
they can make this very ugly. But there is no chance of Russia
being able to back down, so I don't think they can do much.

RT:Washington and Brussels appear to be
ignoring the nationalists and extremists within the Kiev
government. Why is that?

DW: Because it's supremely embarrassing. I was
in Kiev and in Moscow many years ago, and one of the things that
you can see when you’re on the ground there, that you are never
taught in American schools, is the overwhelming pride at having
defeated the fascists, and having pushed back the Nazis, and at
what an incredible sacrifice of tens of millions of people for
the Soviet Union and how important that is to the national
identity. And now to have these Western powers actually paying
fascists, paying neo-Nazis, to seize power in a country on
Russia's border is simply too evil and too embarrassing to admit,
and so they'll just continue to deny it.

There were also reports that neo-Nazis from all over Europe are
descending on Kiev to join the mobs that have been patrolling the
city with bats. It's not law, it's not order, it's a lawless coup
and it should be scary to anyone who is invested in peace and
order.

RT:Many Russians live in Ukraine,
especially in Crimea. Does Moscow have the right to protect them
in the way it is proposing?

DW: There is no question either under 1994
agreement, under any sense of moral duty, any sense of national
pride or simply as a matter of being the power in the region that
has power to prevent chaos. There is no question that Russia is
within her right to protect these people in this way. Absolutely
no question. The only people who can shriek about the
international law ironically are the people who have been
violating it without cease for at least the last 15 years
flagrantly and on view for all the world [to see].

RT:Where will things go from here?

DW: My prediction is that Russia will come out
of this better than they went in. Crimea is basically is a
de-facto secession already. The Western Ukraine is a basket case,
the EU never wanted them. And they are going to scream when
austerity comes in and ruins their lives much more than
Yanukovich ever could have. It is an absolute disaster for the
West, a security disaster for Russia, and there is no way for it
to end well except for the eventual peaceful partition of the
country.